THE ELECTORAL CONSEQUENCES OF ALIENATION - NONVOTING AND PROTEST VOTING IN THE 1992 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

This article focuses on the context of the 1992 national elections in order to determine why certain alienated individuals chose to stay hom e on election day while others responded by voting for a third party P residential candidate. Two dimensions of alienation, internal and exte rnal political inefficacy, are linked to lower levels of voting, as is consistent with previous research on voting behavior. In addition, we find that, among those who voted, those individuals who expressed pol itical cynicism or external inefficacy were more likely to vote for Ro ss Perot. We conclude that, while many alienated individuals do not vo te, the Perot candidacy in 1992 led certain alienated individuals to e ngage in ''protest'' voting by casting their vote for an unlikely winn er in the presidential race.